We offer a special
thank you to IABC’s
exclusive Gold Quill
Awards sponsor,
Towers Watson,
for their support
and ongoing
commitment to
excellence.

Gold Quill Awards a resounding success Every year we look forward to seeing what kinds of projects our members will submit for the Gold Quill Awards. This year was no different, with more than 800 entries received—an 18 percent increase over last year. Members were able to submit heir entries online, an option that was a
direct response to feedback from members about creating a more streamlined
process for both entrants and evaluators.

The Gold Quill judging process this
year included five regional Blue Ribbon
Panels of evaluators who reviewed the
entries and provided specific feedback.
The panels met in person in San Francisco, London, Toronto, Pretoria (South
Africa), and Melbourne (Australia). In
addition, a virtual panel of evaluators
reviewed any entries that the Blue Ribbon
Panels were unable to review due to the
volume and the time necessary to provide
feedback.

Said Claire Watson, ABC, APR,who spearheaded the effort to revampthe Gold Quill Awards: “We foundsome amazing gems among theentries received, and words cannotexpress my gratitude to the peoplewho gave up their weekend, some fly-ing thousands of miles and staying inhotels at their own personal expense,to be part of this great adventure.Rock stars, every one, helping us tocelebrate excellence in strategic com-munication planning and execution.”A complete list of winners is availablehere.

Audiobook tacklescrisis management

IABC’s first audiobook takes a newapproach to the topic of crisis communi-cation and management by using story-telling to convey crisis management bestpractices. Crisis Management: Tales fromthe Front Line, produced by CarolineSapriel and Dirk Lenaerts, consists of 10individual case studies that illustrate eachof the authors’ 10 “commandments” ofeffective crisis management, such as regu-larly mapping stakeholders and issues.You can listen to the first few chap-ters (which focus on owning and com-municating problems early on, and notattempting to make what is bad lookgood) on IABC’s website.

As of June, the chapters are being
released on a biweekly basis, so check
back regularly for each new chapter.

Report focuses onrelationship marketing

When it comes to purchasing decisions,
consumer wants trump needs. Yet many
organizations incorrectly assume what
their customers want, to the detriment
of all. Why? Those companies base many
of their product and service decisions on
the opinions of their own employees,
rather than their target consumers.

In Relationship Marketing: Delivering on the Customer Experience, the
latest report from IABC, Morgan Leu

Parkhurst writes that “a successful customer experience is only successful if
hear for yourself

Caroline Sapriel and Dirk Lenaerts
recently spoke with CW Executive
Editor Natasha Nicholson about
crisis management best practices
and how crises must be managed
differently today than in the past.